This debate comes in the wake of the Senate Armed Services Committee report concluding that high ranking officials authorized torture in violation of U.S. law. (I previously posted on this here.) Link to the summary and conclusions here.

The Bush administration response--well known by now--is that any statutory restrictions on its actions were themselves unconstitutional (as impinging its inherent Article II powers); the administration maintains that its actions were consistent with the Constitution. And in any event, Congress immunized officials from prosecution for most of these acts; the OLC ruled that others were legal.